Reply #31: Are you referring to my comments about Pell

[Inuca]

grants? I am not pushing anything, I am just telling something I know from where I work. So I cannot give you any source, and I said that I am not directly involved with financial aid so I do not have any numbers. Just many stories I hear from co-workers, mainly instructors gossiping about their students. Also my husband is taking some courses at the college where I work and heard the same thing from some of his fellow students. If you were not referring to the Pell grants issue, then just ignore my answer :-). And believe me, on the flip side, I heard some amazing stories of people in really bad circumstances that could not have done anything without help from Pell grants, and now are students and working very hard at it, stories of people that started welfare mothers, got the Pell grant and are now teaching at the college, etc. The last thing I want is to hurt these people or make it more difficult for them to get the help they need and deserve. But I guess the key word is "deserve", not everybody does, and there may be a way to fine tune the system so that the deserving are helped and the others not. And by "deserving" I do not mean grade point averages and the like, I mean doing your best (or at least your "good"), which means different things for different people.

About the Medicare: that's why I said that the devil is the details, or whichever way I put in my message. Maybe it's possible to raise the cap (I am not for it, just tring to think about it, pros & cons) as a rule, but make exceptions easy. That's what I was trying to say. That's why I mentioned my case. Not everybody is the same, maybe it's possible to fine tune the system so it tries to address the differences in helath, work history, family situation, etc. I may be naive, definitely a possiblity, but in principle it may be doable. OTOH if we could have Medicare for all, i.e., single payer, I am 1000% for it. We can keep dreaming, can't we :-(?

As to your last paragraph, if you had the impression that my criticism and commenst about disgusting vitriol were in any way referring to you, I am truly sorry, it was ABSOLUTELY not my intent.